...or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctors about all medicines you take. pradaxa side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. if you or someone you love has afib not caused by a heart valve problem... ...ask your doctor about reducing the risk of stroke with pradaxa. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. this morning my question, just how many pushups can justin bieber do. plus, a special fact check on the latest from dick cheney. and the president's call to action for young men of color. first, when you hear about bolder action from second term obama, are you sure which obama

they're talking about? good morning, you guys. i am ari melber in for melissa harris-perry. we're talking about michelle obama's plan for a healthier plan. we have breaking news on the ukraine. a week after he was ousted, there are now concerns that russia is carrying out an armed invasion in ukraine's crimea region. that's a predominantly ethnic russian area in the south. just this morning, this is new, russian president vladimir putin officially asked russia's parliament for permission to send his country's military into the ukraine. they're needed to help protect ethnic russians. ukrainian officials say thousands of russian troops are

already arriving there. now heavily armed men who refuse to identify themselves have taken up positions in the airport. a russian warship is blocking a set of ukrainian vessels. a russian ally asserted today that he is in control of the area's military. he's appealing to vladimir putin for help. demonstrators took to the streets of crimea for russian support. all of this unrest has drawn a new unscheduled set of remarks. we saw that last night from president obama. that included a direct warning to russia. >> we are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the russian federation inside of ukraine. russia has an historic relationship with ukraine including cultural and economic ties and a military facility in crimea, but any violation of ukraine's sovereignty and

territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing which is not in the interest of ukraine, russia, or europe. it would represent a profound interference in matters that must be determined by the ukrainian people. it would be a clear violation of russia's commitment to respect the independence and sovereignty and borders of ukraine and of international law. and just days after the world came to russia for the olympic games that would invite the condemnation of nations around the world and, indeed, the united states will stand with the international community in affirming there will be costs for any intervention in ukraine. >> let's go to white house correspondent kristen welker. what do we know now and is there any response on the breaking news from the white house? >> reporter: well, we're getting an early response at this hour, ari. just a few moments ago a senior administration official telling me that the white house is monitoring the situation quite closely and is in contact with

its partners abroad at this hour. that suggests that there are a fleury of high-level conversations going on as we speak. as vladimir putin continues to escalate the situation, his request to parliament includes the request that he be allowed to go into the territory of ukraine. that is important because it means that he's not just limiting his intervention to crimea, which is of course what we saw yesterday. he's essentially asking that he have the authority to go into other russian-speaking territories. as you mentioned, president obama came out yesterday with a stern warning to russia not to intervening, not to escalate this situation. for days the administration had been urging russia not to intervene, but that diplomacy seemed to fail. president obama warning of potential costs if this situation is to escalate. the big question is what would those costs be? a white house official tells nbc news that this administration is talking with its partners

contemplating potentially boycotting the g-8 summit which is scheduled to be held in sochi later this year and which will be hosted by russia. so that is the latest here. we also know that vice president biden reached out to the prime minister of ukraine yesterday, commended that new government for its restraint and also reiterated the fact that the u.s. supports that new interim government that is in place in ukraine right now. ari, there's been a lot of discussion about whether or not this has essentially returned the united states and russia to a cold war posture. >> right. >> reporter: u.s. officials have been very adamant. they've pushed back against that posture. secretary kerry said, this is not rocky iv. all of these steps that we have seen over the past 24 hours escalating the situation certainly adding to the tensions between these two nations. >> absolutely. and that also reflects something the president said earlier, that this is not about a cold war power games but rather stability in the ukraine.

seems it may be difficult to maintain that posture here with some escalation. kristen welker, thanks for your reporting. >> thank you, ari. >> we go to p.j. crowley, former secretary of state and now professor at george washington university. p.j., you've served the obama administration. i want to get your take what we're seeing. yesterday president obama makes a clear statement to his russian counterpart about not intervening. today the news is president putin is seeking to place military personnel there. is this, in your mind, a direct response from putin to what the president said yesterday? >> i think, yes, up to a point. obviously ukraine has a vital importance to russia and this has been -- this is a latest episode in perhaps a 25-year effort to define whether ukraine is going to have a strong relationship with the west or stay within the orbit of russia and the east. >> yeah. let me play for you as well -- let me read to you what eric

cantor had said about this because the politics here are relevant. they haven't been too divisive, but house majority leader cantore issued a statement saying for ukrainian protesters, there should be sanctions against russian individuals who interfere in ukraine's domestic affairs. do you view that as politics or serious policy opg that should be considered here? >> i mean, the president put that on the table yesterday. we said there would be consequences depending on what russia's reaction to the current events are. i think if you go back say four or six weeks, you know, vladimir putin was on offense. he was trying to entice ukraine to have a closer economic relationship and political relationship with the east. yanukovych said a majority of the people reflected in the protest said no. now i think he's playing defense but simply raising the costs for the united states and the

european union. putin was willing to write a $15 billion check to prop up the ukrainian economy. now that burden falls to international community, the united states and european union. i think what he's ultimately getting at is trying to create the same kind of paralysis in ukraine that he's created in georgia back in 2008 so that ukraine is just struggling to survive and not able to make any fundamental long-term strategic decisions. >> yeah, i think that makes sense. you mentioned the economic pressures. the big question is does that continue to be a geopolitical power through economics or as we've been reporting with more armed forces on the ground or coming in, some unidentified, do we look at something that could be a much more dangerous military escalation. p.j. crowley in washington. thank you. >> thanks, ari. up next, food fight. first lady michelle obama is digging in and some of america's biggest corporations may not like what she's saying.

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welcome back. the fourth anniversary of her let's move childhood obesity campaign. michelle obama unveiled several plans to help people make healthier choices. they announced a new fda reform for the first time in actually 20 years changes what you find on those nutrition facts labels, the ones on side of food packaging. >> as consumers and as parents, would he have a right to understand what's in the food we're feeding our families because that's really the only way that we can make informed choic choices, but having clear, accurate information, and ultimately that's what today's announcement is all about. >> all right. get ready for some sticker shock

because while the original labels were useful, many companies ended up using serving size loopholes to disguise how many calories they were packing. that ends under this rule. a pint of ice cream could be listed as 4 serving of 400 calories. remember, there's some evidence that information with policy nudging can shape behavior. the scientific record is mixed on scientific labels. the proposal ups the font size as well as common sense reforms. all sugar altogether. it's all condensed so people can see whether they want that much sugar in a drink. michelle obama and her staff played a key role in moving that through the fda.

mrs. obama and tom vilsack worked on the marketing they can send to our public schools. >> we can all agree that our classrooms should be healthy places where kids are not bombarded with ads for junk food. this is part of a broader effort to inspire companies to rethink how they market food to kids in general. the proposed rules work on what they can advertise. it follows up on something you can remember, a big food movement in 2012. she added healthier options to subsidized food. the obesity rate among children between the ages of 2 and 5 years old has dropped by 43% in the past decade. that is the first time since america's obesity epidemic in the '80s that those kinds of percentages have gone down for

any age group. many factors are in play. "the new york times" says the drop may come from a combination of local, state and obama care administration policies in reducing obesity. some more research for you that shows today's obese kids are five times as likely to become tomorrow's obese adults. the progress of children is key because today's obese adults are not doing so well. take a look at this gallup survey that reports that one out of four americans are obese. that is the highest rate since this particular study began in 2008. it adds up to a public health care and economic crisis. obesity relates to coronary heart disease and hypertension. the costs, well, $150 billion a year according to the centers for disease control and prevention. the regulatory efforts are not only aimed at trimming the fat from some of these obesity numbers. they can cut into the food and

beverage industry deciding what and how we eat. this industry has long been resistant to government efforts because big food, would, well, rather regulate itself. according to a deep dive from reuters, at every level of government the food and beverage industry won fight after fight during the last decade. they've never lost a significant label battle in the u.s. despite mounting scientific evidence of the role of unhealthy food and children's marketing in obesity. according to the report, the industry's pockets are more than $11 trillion deep and have allowed it to have the loudest and most influential voice in some of these debates. what's different? it looks like some of the big bucks may stop at michelle obama's white house east wing office because she has positioned herself as a champion for america's health and her latest move suggests she's ready to take on the industry and, yes, a food fight. joining us now from nyu's

department of nutrition, food studies and public health, and green for all and "new york times" investigative reporter michael moss author of "salt, suggest garks fat, how the food giants hooked us." thank you all for being here. i'm really excited about this conversation. the mhp team is excited about it. michael, let's start with the title of your book. >>y. >> the sugar and the fat, we like it, but what you report and document is that we don't just naturally like it, but it's actually been carefully structured and manipulated by food companies to make us like it more than we might. >> when you look at the internal documents, you listen to their own people talk revealing secrets about how they do it, the overwhelming sense you get is that they are driving day and night not just to get us to like their products but to want more and more of them. i talk about salt, sugar, fat as the unwholly trinity of the

processed food industry. they're using gobs of it to make their products low cost, convenient so they sit on the chef for mont shelf for months at a time and utterly irresistible. >> the marketing is a big piece of this. i said 11 trillion, i meant 1 trillion actually is the deep pockets. look at this pie chart of television food advertising where some of this food goes. candy and snacks, 34%. >> it's not just choices that are made. >> people don't have a incluclu to how marketing affects their food choices. we think we're completely independent and go into a store and choose what they want as if marketing had nothing to do with it.

who are going to be badly affected by it and have problems with their health, they're just selling products. >> nikki? >> that's true. and marketing to children, in one sense they do care because then they have customers for life. when i was a small child i remember such fond memories of going to the fast food chains and playing after school and having a crush on that cartoon kid that one of the fast food chains said was going to help me be more acceptable at school because i was eating those fries, and i think it's particularly significant when we talk about kids of color because so many students of color and low income students, that's all the food that they have access to. >> yeah. i want to play some sound from the president and you talk about the racial dynamic here.

we want to get to that. this is the president at the state of the union talking about why michelle cares about this. take a listen. >> so wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more american families, that's what i'm going to do. as usual, our first lady sets a good example. michelle's let's move partnership with schools, businesses, local leaders has helped bring down childhood obesity rates for the first time in 30 years, and that's an achievement that will improve lives and reduce health care costs for decades to come. >> nikki, he's right about that. we put up the statistics broadly, at least for very young americans. but to your point, it's not equal across demographic groups. >> no, it's not. the most food insecure house holds in america are single african-american mothers and when you look at that and then you look at if children are going to start asking for healthier food but you have communities that have no full

service grocery stores that have 20 to 30,000 people living in them where are they going to get the food if mcdonald's and burger king are all that you have that are affordable and recognizable to you because maybe you come from a cultural background that doesn't eat this, what are you supposed to do? there has to be a holistic solution. >> you were shaking your head. >> i was shaking my head because the drop in childhood obesity among children age 2 to 5 is not equal. the drop is among white children, among black and hispanic children it's gone up, and overall the rates, the good news from that study, is that there's been no change in overall rates. >> right. >> since 2003. >> that's the good news. >> that's the good news. >> no change. >> that's the good news is there's no change, but for black and hispanics, and particularly low income black and his panics, it's going up bus they get the worst of everything. >> when you say the worst of everything. it's not only the worst food but

sometimes being vulnerable to the worst information and misinformation. i want to get your thoughts on that when we come back and look at how big food may push back against some of the first lady's proposals. the latest high profile figures to join the let's move campaign. >> mr. president, are you ready to move? >> absolutely. let's do this thing. let's move. ♪ ♪ in the last 23 years, but i needed help in quitting smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix varenicline is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced the urge for me to smoke. it actually caught me by surprise. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking, or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental-health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it.

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before it becomes official. regulators are considering two different designs for the new label. look at this. they're working on a third label that will distinguish between the calories per serving and per package. for the large packages that can be consumed in a single sitting. not every company in this regulated space supports more regulation. some fear the food industry is headed for the kind of restrictions and stigma associated with dangerous products like tobacco. one food company consultant was asked about the food industry's view and he told politico, it's a laundry list of everything the industry didn't want. michael, what we've been talking about and what you write on is what the industry wants and how it does this. nikki was making the point in the earlier segment about these racial disparities. i want to put up on the screen a chart about the issues that shows a break away of how

communities of colors and others are doing obesity wise. you can see it pretty clearly there. two points are made on that. number one, that when many low income students end up in school, sometimes that narrows a little bit as they have school lunches, when they're done the right way. and, second, the information that's actually provided, the marketing, etc., that you've been covering. >> you know, i looked really hard to see whether the companies, the food giants were targeting kids by race through their formulations, and i think they're pretty color blind on that. i mean, they are hitting the bliss point for sweetness, the flavor bursts for salt, the mall fuel for fat regardless of race. but the marketing, the marketing that you see, the up and down the street marketing which they refer to targeting the corner stores that surround schools in many cities is clearly directed. >> and what is the bliss point? >> the bliss point is the perfect amount of sugar in a product that will send us over

the moon. they're products flying off the che shelf. it's not that they've engineered it for the soda and ice cream. they've marched around the store making things sweet that didn't used to be sweet. now we're expecting sweetness in what we eat. for kids, when you drag their butts over to the produce aisle and get them to eat the brussel sprouts and broccoli, they get those bitter notes, forget about it. >> brussel sprouts have become a trendy vegetable in cool cities. it's hard to get kids to eat them. you were saying, marianne. >> the food companies market deliberately to low income minority areas. they look at it as a market and it's an under served market. they put a lot of money into making sure that their products are there, available and are explained to those communities as being something that's cool, sexy, and totally appropriate. >> yeah. isn't that the battle. we're talking of an issue of

health and to some degree racial justice and we have a battle between the power ever very sophisticated madison avenue marketing versus government regulated information. i want to put up a 2006 usda report on this issue that found a majority of consumers report using nutrition labels when buying food. use has combined including the nutrition facts panel, information about calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium. for those with no education beyond high school. >> when we talk about how childhood obesity decreased among white children and not among children of color, part of the whole picture is if you have a single mother that's working two different jobs who is only able to give her child five or $10 to buy lunch or snacks and you have marketing that is specifically targeted to low income communities, then you

have children that are unsupervised that are getting the only food that they have available to them, the food that gives them a good feeling because of the bliss point and -- >> which i feel, by the way. i know about that bliss point. i have hit it. >> we all have. we all have. >> and yet without structure of when and how to do that and having the right information, right? >> it goes from an occasional treat which is okay. it's okay to treat yourself sometimes, right? >> of course. >> but a way of life without the context. >> right. >> the other point i want to make, michael, about trans fats is this is an area where forcing the companies to list trans fats, we know this, here's a 2013 "new york times" article talks about it. forcing the companies to list trans fats actually led to a change in market demand that ultimately declined than wanting to put trans fats in foods. there is a way this can work to a degree. >> the companies are risk averse is one thing i learned. i was surprised by that. they're very sensitive to sales drops. the slightest drop in sales, if we're reaching a tipping point here where more and more people

are caring about what they're putting in their bodies, it translates into sales decisions, the companies will try to respond, but i wanted to make a point about the nutritional facts box. it makes my blood boil as we talked earlier because, look, you know, that facts box came out in the '90s. it's tiny print on the back of the package. really hard for me to understand, not most people, right? and, you know, the most important real estate on the package is on the front and the companies totally control that. that's where they do their touting of low sugar, low fat, added calcium and that's what grabs people's attention, but what really boils me is that way back in 2003 it was none other than kraft, the largest company of all, went to the fda begging them to let them make improvements, not just in the nutrition facts box. in fact, many of the things that they're proposing now, but they actually wanted to put on the front of the packages total

calories as a warning to people. fda blew them off and ten years have gone by. >> right. we know that can make a difference. there are local cities that have taken that regulation approach and said when you go up and look at the product, the calories are next to it. it is equal with the headline. that can be a very different message. i want us to turn to also in the next block the legal piece of this because there's some pretty interesting pursuits of big food as if it were big tobacco. we'll bring in the lawyer who says state attorneys general should go at big food the way they once went at big tobacco. that's next. [ male announcer ] zzzquil.

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welcome to the modern world. to nbcuniversal's coveragens of the biggest loser olympic winter games ever, with the most coverage of the most events on every device. and the most hours of streaming video on the nbc sports live extra app, including the x1 platform from xfinity. comcast was honored to bring every minute of every medal of nbcuniversal's coverage to every screen. so what's next? rio 2016. welcome to what's next. comcast nbcuniversal. we have a free market in the u.s., but that's never minute corporations are free to lie about their products or smear the science or they're free to sell anything to anyone in any way. remember this iconic instance of congressional oversight? it was back in '94. congress summoned the top seven big tobacco executives to

testify about addiction. one of the arguments that day continues to echo now. they suggested their products were no worse than junk food. henry waxman, the democratic chair, tried to eviscerate that. >> this morning in your written statement and your oral statement you compared cigarettes to coffee, tea, sweets, sugar, warm milk, cheese, chocolate and twinkies. that's quite a list. i'm struck by what i think is a calculated attempt to trif vallize the devastating health impacts of your product. you and i both know that twinkies don't kill a single american a year. they may not add to a healthy diet, but they don't kill. >> or do they? waxman was of course debating a skilled foe in a national legal settlement and they ultimately found tobacco was addictive. that forced companies to drop $368 billion. still, big tobacco's twinkie

defense was good politics. today it's probably not good politics or science. obesity illnesses now outpace smoking as a rising driver of health care costs. some regulators are considering targeting big soda and food companies with the same tactics they used. free market doesn't mean free rein to manipulate our children. one lawyer wants state attorneys generals to investigate. joining us is paul mcdonald. welcome and what are you trying do here? >> good morning. what i'm trying to do here, you made reference to the cost. currently taxpayers bear 100% of the costs associated with obesity related illnesses paid through medicaid and what i'm trying to do here is say what we ought to look at is whether or not the food manufacturers bear any responsibility. if they bear more than zero responsibility then there's a dividing line between personal responsibility and their responsibility and whatever percentage falls on them i think should be paid back to the taxpayers as opposed to

taxpayers bearing 100% of the costs. >> didn't yon't you have to get any cause. selling music can be addictive. wasn't there more against the case to big tobacco than just that? >> well, yes and no. there are a couple of things. the causal link isn't just one of addiction although we do have some type of addiction. it's also mattered to the causal link to the illness. what we're paying for in medicaid is the illness and the treatment and the costs that go along with that. the causation issue is one i think we can sess out especially if we do an investigation in advantages of filing any lawsuits which is what i'm saying should be done. an investigation into the industry documents talking to potential whistle blowers to identify if there is something to go after. if there's not, we shouldn't. we should find that out and have that information in the public sphere. >> politico has reported on it.

i want to bring in our panel. stay with us, paul. marion, what we're hearing is an idea of regulatory approach that's been backed by litigation. the role of the fda, some of this is picking up the slack where they've been inactive? >> i think we need all of it. we need to look at what happened with tobacco as a way to deal with some of these food issues because there are many parallels. that's one way to deal with it. another is what michelle obama is trying to do in order to educate the public, reduce rates of childhood obesity, and given the kind of push back that there is on this, what she's doing has to be understood in today's politics as being really courageous. >> yeah, nikki, just briefly. what paul's calling for here goes way farther than what the first lady is trying to do. is that a matter of practical washi i washington wouldn't boundaries or should she give the voice to

support this effort? >> i think support is very important. when you look at the holistic opportunities, we have to stop the bad stuff and get some money for the good stuff. >> let me go to paul. your final thoughts? >> again, this is part of an overall strategy. i don't think it's one thing that has to be done as opposed to another. i think it's something that's complementary. i'm trying to make sure the taxpayers aren't bearing 100% of the costs if that's not what's fair in the form of higher taxes or reduced efforts. >> you put it concisely. we're glad to have you on mhp. >> thank you for having me. >> paul mcdonald. here in new york, my thanks to marry on nestle, michael moss and nikki. this is a good conversation. up next, i have something i hope you'll hear. it's for a friend of ours. it's my letter to former vice president dick cheney. 0 gigs of data to share.

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defense secretary chuck hagel proposed some major reforms at the pentagon this week. he twoonts save $75 billion over the next two years. some republicans seized on the plan to attack president obama and it's fine to debate the military's goals, but one top republican, a former defense secretary who styles himself as a hawk's hawk came out of retirement to blast the president in a misleading and i think toxic way. so today, well, my letter is to former vice president dick cheney. dear mr. vice president, it's me, ari. we haven't heard from you in a while but you just called in to fox news about the president's plan. >> it's budget considerations. he'd rather spend the money on food stamps than he would a strong military or support on our troops. >> would he? let's start with the false choice. our soldiers or our food stamps. mr. vice president, we live in a

nation where many soldiers and military are using food stamps. military families spebld $100 million in snap benefits every year. in any given month, here's some facts for you. 900,000 veterans live in households that use food stamps or snap. we should live in an economy where they don't need snap but right now they do. mr. cheney, under your false choice you wouldn't be picking soldiers over food stamps, you'd be picking weapons systems over the many soldiers on food stamps but you know that. so why did you grab this comparison out of the thin wyoming air? well, it's an all too common habit among gop politicians. here was newt gingrich in 2011. >> you want to be a country which grabs food stamps in which case obama is an enormous success. or do you want to be a country that creates paychecks.

>> that is another false choice. snap benefits are for people out of work and 1 out of 3 are for working adults. their wages don't pay them enough to survive. that's key to the minimum wage debate. if people who work are starving, do we want to subsidize them with benefits or require companies to pay a living wage? well, that came up when governors visited the white house this very week with a twist. >> what i worry about, i heard a question over here about whether you mentioned the minimum wage. yes, he did repeatedly to us. what i worry about is this president and the white house seems to be waiving the white flag of surrender after more than five years of this administration, the obama economy is now the minimum wage economy. i think we can do better than that. >> the minimum wage economy. now listen close. that is meant as some kind of slur, but in a regulated market economy a large share of workers will always be paid the minimum regulated wage. while the president is the one trying to make that a living

wage, in this cheney, gingrich, jindahl is suspect. there's a bit of contempt on that. the minimum wage workers or the people using snap. there's a rhetorical attempt to disappear the more popular members of these groups, like veterans from the political mental image. so, mr. cheney, i don't imagine you or governor jindahl would criticize the president for focusing on our veterans on food stamps or our veterans living on minimum wage though they are part of these groups just the same. yet you think you can smear president obama by associating him with a group of americans disfavored in your political imagination regardless of the data and maybe you think that passes a weighing in on this public policy. you know, there fs a time when that kind of double barrelled military welfare politicking helped republicans win presidential elections, but it hasn't worked since -- well, it

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rio 2016. welcome to what's next. comcast nbcuniversal. the parents of tray involve martin and their presence was more than symbolic as president obama noted. >> in the aftermath of the trayvon martin verdict with all the emotions and controversy that it sparked, i spoke about the need to bolster and

reinforce our young men and give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them. >> cares about them and values them? well, my brother's keeper launched one day after the two year anniversary of trayvon martin's death. trayvon martin's parents will be joining jordan davis's parents on march 10th with a march to the florida statehouse in tallahassee. a national self-defense campaign to challenge barriers in the justice system. we're shining a light on that because they argue that they want to put and keep people of color in this conversation and the way the law works. to mark the two years since trayvon martin's death, msnbc.com, traf von lee decided to shine his own light on economic inequality which haunds sanford, florida, the town where trayvon was killed.

we have juan cartinega, and hollywood actor breyon bein who's the author of rethinking race in the prisons of america. you've kbeen doing this reporting. tell us what you found. >> two years later, golds borrow, is still reeling not just from the spotlight shown down on it after the trayvon martin killing in the case, but they've been reeling from centuries of economic oppression, social oppression. so while the community is still galvanizing after the cameras have gone, after national spotlight has gone, they're still struggling in so many ways. i think that's indicative of the kinds of issues that brought this entire thing to light. once trayvon martin was killed, they were the first ones to protest. when we came down and started talking to people in the community layer after layer saying there have been issues with the police, with employment, with incarceration and over zealous policing in the

community, so they say. >> michael, you were there. you have been close to these victims' families. i want to read from something that was written after interviewing lucia mcbath. >> you exist, you matter. you have every right to wear your hoodie, play your music as loud as you want. you have every right to be you and no one should deter you from being you. you have to be you and you can never be afraid of being you. >> i didn't know we were going to discuss this particular issue today, and they say never cry on television, but i have to say, you know, what the president if on thursday acknowledging the pain of two families who have lost their child to senseless violence, and not just on thursday, what he did a year ago in the state of the union by putting high deappendle ton's parents in the box next to the first lady and the pain of

americans is just as equal to white families. furthermore, to launch an initiative saying young men of color are of value. as a white american, if the most vulnerable people in this country are young men of color, it is in our best interests as white people that this program succeeds, this country can truly prosper. >> i want to go to breanne briefly and we'll continue this after the break. what we saw there was a juxtaposition that nobody wanted to make for policy or political or any other reason, but an undeniable juxtaposition between the young men who graduated that program and that the president highlighted and the young man whose lives were cut short. >> i think it points to the fact that we need to change the narrative that the country is embraced around black and around youth. if black children are four times as likely to be born into poverty, are they to blame for that? we need to embrace not just the critique of personal

responsibility but political accountability by the communities that have been marginalized. for it to be effective, we need to broaden the analysis i think in that direction. >> i think that's the issue. we're going to take a short break and come back and do a lot more on this, get in all of our guests, but also really look at what you just put your finger on, which is what is an historic legacy of inequality and what is ongoing systemic discrimination and hearing the president talk about it and as detailed as we've heard him in the second term. next it is the president's deeply personal message. bill o'reilly is not just trolling because the president invited bill o'reilly to be there. we're going to look at that which is important. and this one you're going to have to see. on justin bieber's birthday, a closer look at the rising stars of hip-hop, a question of race and yes, cultural appropriation. it's nerd land and that's at the top of the hour. ♪ under the sun...

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welcome. i am ari melber in for melissa harris-perry. you may have seen this. a line of young black and brown men standing with president obama at the white house. this was moments before the president put attention on them when announcing a new policy. president obama did something pretty remarkable on thursday. he took on the undertow and he argued that systemic inequities should not be stuck below the surface of our discourse and politics. this was not an analysis about how all-americans will help other americans although that's fine or how all policies that deal with unemployment help all african-americans, this was an address for young men of color specifically, and the president spoke about two kinds of inequiti inequities. first those related to the historic impacts of jim crow and slavery. these are areas where black men started out behind and remained often behind. take unemployment. 5% for white men roughly but 12%

for black men and 8% for latino men. among 16 to 24-year-olds not enrolled in school fewer than half have jobs. those are long term and persistent inequities. then he addressed a second category. systemic racism that operates today holding young men of color back even when their work or their conduct or their choices are the same as other americans. look at smoking weed for example. black and white people use pot at similar rates. black americans are three times as likely as white people to be arrested for marijuana or look at what happens when you mess around in school or cut class and get into a fight which a lot of kids do sooner or later. today they make up more than 70% of all students referred to leempt. black students are 3 1/2 times

more likely to be expelled than white students. only half graduate from high school on time. after citing some of the statistics himself president obama said this. >> and the worst part is, we've become numb to these statistics. we're not surprised by them. we take them as the norm. we just assume this is an inevitable part of american life instead of the outrage that it is. that's how we think about it. >> amen to that. that outrage is partly why the president on thursday introduced my brother's keeper. this is the new white house initiative meant to help young men of color. >> the plain fact is there are some americans who in the aggregate are consistently doing worse in our society. groups that have had the odds

stacked against them in unique ways that require unique solutions. groups who have seen fewer opportunities that have spanned generations and by almost every measure, the group that is facing some of the most severe challenges in the 21st century, in this country, are boys and young men of color. >> and because congress has been mostly a roadblock, the white house is going forward with an executive task force and a coordinated plan with private and nonprofit investments. that includes michael bloomberg and nine other initial funders. $350 million over the next five years to address these obstacles. but there's something bigger here. the policy goal is to spotlight and scale local programs that work like the becoming a man initiative in chicago for local support and funding from government and civic leaders around the country, that kind of leadership. now it may be a sign of racial progress that the president's effort here on thursday drew a

lot of praise and, to be fair, very few direct attacks from congressional republicans. some critics, however, say it is still problematic that this emphasis on civil rights had to wait until the second term and some say that yet again the political rules for these kind of programs seem to always require a certain kind of rhetoric when announcing any remedial measures. >> part of my message, part of our message in this initiative is no excuses. it may be hard, but you will have to reject the cynicism that says the circumstances of your birth or society's lingering injustices necessarily define you and your future. it will take courage, but you will have to tune out the naysayers that say the deck is stacked against you, you might as well just give up or settle into the stereotype. joining us now for this conversation, msnbc national

reporter trumaine lee, michael skofield, juan cahthenia. breanne bein. juan, your take and what it means. >> refreshing, energizing and motivating. this is exactly why we elect people that look like us to public office. they experience what mr. obama did when he was younger and they're able to move. what we need to do is make sure the speaker of the house and the senate are talking about the same thing because congress is the biggest roadblock here. we created decades of focus on conflating youth, criminal behavior and race, mostly through congressional policies. we have to fix that. it will take a long time. >> breanne, i want to dip into that with systemic race that continues and personal conduct. the president was threading a

needle. take a listen to what he said about his own history. >> i made bad choices. i got high without always thinking about the harm that it could do. i didn't always take school as seriously as i should have. i made executicusesexcuses. after i was finished, the guy sitting next to me said, are you talking about you? i said, yeah. and the point was, i could see myself in these young men. >> part of what he was alluding to was that he made some of those mistakes but didn't bear the full brunt in his upbli iin >> and i think his emphasis is of value. i want to expand on no excuses. there's no excuse that we billed

pr build prisons based on fourth grade test scores. we need to expand that no excuses paradigm from the individual to institutional level for it to have impact. a big part of this is looking for what's happening to folks who are currently incarcerated or formerly incarcerated to get the strategies for how this can i move forward in a pro ducttive way. >> i think the thing about it is is the narrative of this criminalized class of people. it's the school policy, manager, hiring manager. what the president did is by addressing these institutional systemic issues is bring to light how pervasive it is. that's where we'll struggle. he has cover. a year before trayvon martin was killed, the cdc said look at these double digit numbers.

after thousands of black and brown killing, white students took to the streets and demanded action and a brighter light on some things that impact this group. he said, i can't deny that. he stands up and says, trayvon martin could have been my son and he looks like me. >> i have to tell you, i was following the president and i remember being on the plane when he was running in 2008. he obviously had this fight in him. he obviously spoke about it. i don't think it's an unfair criticism to note that he spoke about it almost always universal is tickly. if you don't have any women on the board and you want women on the board, you can't say, good education will result in this. if you look at the numbers that we're talking about, michael, oh, i smoked pot, you smoked pot, under our rules in the aggregate there is a far greater likelihood, 3.7 times more likely that someone like you is going to get busted for that than someone like me, we can't

just deal with that by talking about good policing. we need tostopng discrimination >> absolutely. the thing the president did here that's really good, the thing we didn't have before and why you pointed to it, the lack of congress support. he went out to the public and private sector and said, you guys support me. they won't give me any money and so you support me. the ford foundation, mcarthur, kellogg put up $350 million to support this endeavor and looking at very specific solutions to these problems. third grade reading levels, juvenile justice reform, school suspensions and discipline. saying to america, here's how we can fix this problem. it's not just a problem we have to fix, here's how we can do it, here are the solutions, now i have people behind me who are going to support me. hopefully that 350 becomes 700, 1.5 billion, more investment from private and public partnerships. >> the institutions are slowly finally realizing the therapeutic nature of what we're dealing with. we're talking about a cohort of 16 to 20-year-olds. many are cut up in the criminal

justice system. the human mind, the supreme court is speaking about brain development in young people as a way to ensure both rejecting capital punishment and life without parole. we're getting these institutions to talk and address the issue. what we need now is our elected officials to line up and do this. >> i i wants to back juan and say the importance of the grassroots efforts that have been doing these efforts cannot be neglected. >> that's right. >> we have folks in the projects and in the prisons who are doing this who often get overlooked so i want to make sure we bring the center for new leadership, we bring the anti-recity sid vimp coalition from new york to l.a. to make sure they're part of the conversation that are informing their best practices into this next step. >> yeah. and breanne, when you look at pris southern and your work there, the president and eric holder have done a tremendous amount on reforming the approach within the law to the

incarceration crisis in this country. we'll talk more about that tomorrow. we'll be remiss if we don't talk about it here. >> clinton cut the education programs in 1994. that was a travesty. that needs to be remedied. this week governor kwau mow was launching an rfp to return college programs in new york state. that needs to happen. the ford initiative is happening in california. >> say what cuomo is doing. >> on monday morning, they'll return the college programs from 20 years ago. that is something we've only had private funding backing that. it needs to be a public/private partnership. >> what struck me is he said if you look at the data and you educate people while they're incarcerated, they have less recidivism. let's do that rather than politicking. anyone who has ended up in prison, we give up on them forever. when we come back, we have fox news channel's bill o'reilly.

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one of those invited to the white house thursday to see the launch of my brother's initiative was our guest today, michael skolnick. and fox news anchor, bill o'reilly. yes, even the president found some humor there. >> and if i can persuade sharpton and o'reilly to be in the same meeting, then it means

that -- then it means that there are people of good faith who want to get some stuff done, even if we don't agree on everything, and that's our focus. >> even if we don't agree on anything -- i would say even if we don't agree on everything. my question for bill is do they agree on anything. o'reilly actually went on and spoke with presidential advisor valerie jarrett and offered one of his solutions for the problems plaguing young people of color. >> now i submit to you that you're going to have to get people like jay z, kanye west, all of these gangster rappers to knock it off. you have a barrage, barrage, barrage and make it uncomfortable to have a baby out of wedlock, make it uncomfortable to sell drugs. you've got to reverse the peer pressure. you see where i'm coming from here? >> you see where i'm coming from. yes, bill, we see you. gentlemen, what did you make of that? >> wow. wow. i mean, kanye west as a gangster

know?r, that's a new one off the but i just think he's so misguided in his analysis of what's happening, you know? they have over 70 years of data showing the roots of some of these problems and it doesn't start with jay z and kanye at all. we have a serious problem. we have more people in prison than any other people in the world and you want to start with the rappers who are the low hanging fruit for him to go after. >> in the media there's a technical term for this, when you have to deal with bill o'reilly remarks. it's a quadruple fact check it's wrong in four wasz. a, kanye and jay z not gangster rappers. work with us. b, jay z is the american story, right? that's why he was campaigning with the president. he overcame adversity. the last time i checked he is pro fatherhood. has a child in wedlock and talks a lot about respecting his beautiful wife. i don't mean to be getting up here and be too defensive of jay

z, michael, but there is a problem when the very examples the right seizes on actually don't reflect the point they're trying to make. >> when i first saw this i was so offended by his lack of sensitivity to where america is today, but then i actually -- when i see this again i think to myself, these guys are old and they're dying and they're not going to be around as a new america emerges and that's what the president put forward, we're going to focus on everyone, black, white, gay, straight, documented, undocumented. if you want to put jay z and kanye west as the problem, gangster culture didn't create kids who can't eat. kids who can't have cleats, gangster culture didn't create third grade levels. gangster culture might have done that, but it wasn't hip-hop. the private prison industry.

these corporations continue to profit and if the president can break that, then we have some progress. >> two judges in pennsylvania indicted for selling kids. selling kids to youth detention facilities. that's gangster. that's really gangster. we want to not look at the systemic short falls. >> you're talking about a case and a documentary where the for profit prison industry was in cahoots with the judge. >> trumaine, what about the point michael raises this isn't race but it's age. >> not only is it age, it's a political smoke screen. it plays well into the base. meanwhile, we can deflect attention and say it's because of rappers and we don't have to get busy in the real work. >> valerie did go and do the interview. she doesn't do a ton of these interviews. she sat down with the rev and chuck todd and bill o'reilly and said no to a lot of other people. she found some reason that they wanted to engage with bill o'reilly. >> the fact is, at one point we all are surprised that he was at

the white house. the real question is you give him his five minutes of fame. but in many ways, racism permeates all of these issues. you remember when congress was dealing with issues of violence, particularly drumming up these images of gangsters, gangs in general for people of color youth and at the same time they were also looking at the issues of shootings in suburban schools. the conversation and discourse for that latter example was therapy. how do we deal with these issues. >> yeah. >> when it came to issues of people of color who are young, the issues were excessive sentencing. more harsher penalties. that's what we're dealing with. if you're finding the president talking about this in a clear way talking about race and manifestations across the institutions. >> there's a line and they had bill at the white house. michael had mentioned we'll talk about it later. not a lot of people were sitting next to him in the crowd. we can get to that. juan and trumaine, thank you

very much. i want to let everyone know about troou main's work. is he taking guess my brother's keeper and his reporting on social justice issues on msnbc.com. you can go to mhp show.com and get what you need. when we come back, we're going to talk more about race and music. the hottest new video from one of music's biggest stars and i will say it. you're going to have to see it to believe it. aflac. ♪ aflac, aflac, aflac! ♪ [ both sigh ] ♪ ugh! ♪ you told me he was good, dude. yeah he stinks at golf. but he was great at getting my claim paid fast. how fast? mine got paid in 4 days. wow. that's awesome. is that legal? big fat no. [ male announcer ] find out how fast aflac can pay you at aflac.com.

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appearances because of teen girls creating dangerous scenarios and in movies. he shows off new moves that fans and reporters have been showing off for months. the sobriety test walk and the pushup in a police holding cell. it looks like he does 23 in this scene. today justin turns 20. with the mug shot an official part of his portfolio. he has an adult with a different and increasingly edgy appearance. our culture's view of his problems with the law and his personal desire to invoke some aspects of rap in street life, they open up questions on how far we've come in race and culture. we see people who want to put hip-hop on trial literally. we'll explain. next up at the table we have rap perfect and musician tali

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. on tuesday the 11th judicial circuit of florida will continue its hearing on justin bieber's january 20th arrest. now no stranger to music star bad boy behavior itself and no less a cultural critic than sharon osborne weighed in saying, quote, he doesn't realize he's white and not black. i'll put a big end quote on that. now don't take sharon osborne's word for it. last october justin bieber told the hollywood reporter, quote, i'm very influenced by black culture but i don't think of it as black or white, end quote. there's a lot to unpact in a seemingly controversial statement. we'll skip that part and look at what bieber has opened himself up to because of the look and lir rip. there are here serious accusations of cultural misappropriation. bieber is not the only white artist who's worked to break into a traditionally african-american genre.

it's a music industry technique we know dates back to elvis presley and today there are white artists who garner commercial success while piling on critical acclaim. wrapper m&m has got six for best wrap album. in january macklemore swept four award categories which included beating jay z, drake, kanye west for best rap album. even macklemore thought that win against those competitors was somewhat questionable and following the awards you may have heard about this he posted a picture to his instagram account that he send to kendrick lamar that read, quote, you got robbed. i wanted you to win. you should have. it's weird and sucks that i robbed you. and that text set off a whole new barrage of criticism. john karaminika and he wrote i robbed you is a strikingly

powerful phrase in this context. a white artist essentially uninvited taking its laurel in a nutshell, this is the entire cycle of racial borrowing in an environment of white privilege, white guilt, repeat until there's nothing left to a pope preeight. that's a lot to unpack and we have a lot of good people to unpack it. with us to discuss race, rap and appropriate conversations. michael skolnick. and one-half of black talib kweli and poet and prison activist breanne bein. talib, your thoughts? >> i thought you were going to ask me about bieber. i was scared. first of all, i'm uniquely qualified to speak on macklemore and hip-hop because macklemore and ryan lewis graciously took me on their tour.

we did 40 dates sold out. macklemore told me when he was first nominated, i might win and that's going to be a problem. macklemore was going by the name professor macklemore has a record called white privilege. that's the name of a song. he deals directly with him and m&m and he deals with white privilege head on. >> you mentioned that. we brought the lyrics because it's that kind of show. >> good. i'm glad you want it. >> i'm not going to rap it. let me read from it. where's my place in the music that's been taken by my race. culturally appropriated by the white face. we don't want to admit that this is existing. so scared to acknowledge the benefits of our white privilege. >> some people think his text was corney. some think it was completely sincere. i see it as an artist who realizes his position and in his culture and is doing everything he can do. he can't not be white.

>> this is the history of black music and culture. blues was called the devil's music. when the white man performed it, it was praised. they sued the jazz clubs. now you hard-pressed to find a jazz band in new york city, that's all black. that's what spike lee called it, the christopher columbus effect. hip home hop was a diverse art form. black and latino stories. they were folks doing everything. i look at jeff chan on the west coast and honors the art culture and craft. >> some of this does relate to power and addition. it's not about any individual artist, macklemore, em enem or whoever else. when they were trying give out rap awards and jay z i don't think is a racial matter or

otherwise. power and business which is something he does know about. he said, i'm boycotting the grammys because too many major rap artists continue to be overlooked. rappers deserve more attention. if it's got a gun, everybody knows about it. if we go on a world tour, no one knows. >> i think that was part of the disappointment. we knew kendrick was better than macklemore. and the fact that the grammys had that kind of power to place that award in macklemore's hands instead of kendrick's hands. >> when you say we, i'm going o jump in. >> the hip-hop generation. >> i think we, not only we, a lot of the musical discussion. that's macklemore's premise. he was saying before, during and after he agreed with that. >> certainly. i think what's amazing is these are conversations that talib

said, these are conversations that we would have, hard conversations, painful conversation, but as the first inclusive generation, these are conversations that we want to have. >> yeah. i totally agree. i think that, you know, the grammys when you look at something the scale of the grammys, anyone who's shocked at the grammys going to the most popular white rapper of the day, i have a bridge to sell you. the grammys have been extremely consistent. the last time they surprised me when they gave herb by hancock an award in '08. they've been extremely consistent in appealing to mainstream and white america. they appear to main street america way more than kendricks. it shows ignorance about hip-hop as a culture for the grammys to make that decision so cluelessly. >> i know i was brought on here specifically for my expertise in baliwood rap. i'd like to open up the conversation to you gentlemen. do you agree though that when you speak about the grammys, there is some type of hierarchy

in terms of hip-hop and rap? there are different forms and sometimes they look at it as being commercialized. >> the general consensus of hip-hop is that kendrick lamar had the best album of the year. if that's not the consensus, people feel like the drake album, con yeah. >> and more authentic wrap. >> more authentic. that doesn't take anything away from what macklemore does because his fans and his consumers put him in that position. >> the people voted with their dollars. i think that it speaks to the same type of ignorance that allows bill o'reilly to call kanye west a gangster rapper, by separating it. even kanye has plenty of grammys, too. >> i think it's definitely --

i'm more interested in what's happening in hip-hop on the individual level. >> that's the story of the year. >> that's the story that hasn't been told. >> macklemore and ryan lewis did not do this with a major label. they did it on their own with their own label and it got so powerful where they had to employ warner brothers to promote their records. me as an independent artist, me as an artist without a label and underground rap artists, we should be paying attention to the blueprint that they set up rather than the racial overtones of them winning a grammy. >> i appreciate that point. it goes to whether your commercial strategy fits with your lyrics and independence which is something he cares about. you have been known as a conscious rapper, incomplete term. i had to find out if i was going to be a street pun dint or conscious pundant. >> i know that was hard. >> sorry, everyone. >> that was a good one. >> talib said it was good.

please everyone -- >> he co-signed. >> man with a do rag on. >> we may have to cut it off here. no, i'm kidding. we're going to stay on this. when we come back, this is an interesting angle here. there's another legal matter that goes to these questions. are rap lyrics admissible in a criminal trial. why that matters up next. you get 4 lines on at&t's network... including unlimited talk unlimited text ...and 10 gigs of data to share. 10 gigs? 10 gigs. all for $160 dollars a month. you know, i think our family really needed this. it's really gonna bring us closer together. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. introducing our best-ever family pricing for instance, a family of four gets 10 gigs of data with unlimited talk and text for 160 dollars a month. only from at&t. it says here that increases at the age of 80. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. keep heart-healthy. live long.

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i would indeed. well, let's be clear here. i'm actually a dj. [ dance music plays ] [laughs] no way! i have no financial experience at all. that really is you? if they're not a cfp pro, you just don't know. find a certified financial planner professional who's thoroughly vetted at letsmakeaplan.org. cfp -- work with the highest standard. jay z's 1999 song dope man, how come you label your brand a dope volume 1. spread it through the slums. your honor, the state seeking the maximum charge. what's going on there, dope man, jay z's music is metaphorically on trial. lucky enough to come away with a not guilty verdict. in real life they tend to have their music on trial whether it

is being blamed for youth to engage in criminal behavior or as literally evidence probative of criminal aktsz. that happened in state of new jersey versus skinner. skinner was accused of attempted murder. to show evidence of his propensity of crime they read 13 pains of his rap lyrics that he wrote to the jury. the lyrics contain no reference to the victim or specifics about the crime. most were actually years old but the case was appealed and overturned. now it's heading to the state supreme court on monday. they wrote in that decision i mentioned overturning the conviction, quote, we have significant doubt about whether the jurors would have found defendant guilty if they didn't hear these disturbing and

precedential lyrics. you don't get to bring in things like this that are, a, likely fictitious or artistic and, b, not relevant be to directly proving the crime. >> unless they go to a material issue in the case, such as in this case -- >> broadly though. >> any case. motive, intent, identity. those are reasons why it would come in. in this -- >> generally before we get there, what i'm asking you is generally do you get to bring in something that you wrote about fiction. >> no. if that's your question, no. >> what we're talking about here and the reason why i want to go back to you, something that sounds like a hip-hop perception. >> you're saying fiction. that was the argument of the court. the state agreed. the court that overturned the case said fiction. the trial court didn't say fiction. that's the question of fact of whether it was fiction or not. >> talib? >> that's where you get into the issue of rappers, in this case it's amateur rappers, have the same rights as everybody else.

for it to be presented in a court case that some gangster horror rap lyrics that were in someone's car five years ago can at all be considered anything but fiction speaks to a very, very dangerous prejudice against men of color. >> you are correct. it could have been fiction, the lyrics were written three to four years prior to the incident. >> not just this case -- let's go broader. i don't think people know the skinner case alone. the po int is it's up to be decided. let's look at what the aclu found. in the 18 times that they've looked at a set of cases where lyrics were considered, 80% of the time the lyrics were committed. my premise and i feel strongly about it is generally other people who write songs in other genres don't have their lyrics submitted. i shot the sheriff is generally not submitted in court. >> i think we're seeing hip-hop on trial in many aspects here, in the criminal court.

michael donnelly said there was thug music. bill o'reilly is saying kanye west and jay z are gangster rappers. this perception idea of young men of color being dangerous because they write lyrics of hip-hop, they listen to hip-hop, they like hip-hop, all of a sudden they're dangerous, that's a hard precedent to sell. >> it reminds me the case 20 years ago when two pox label, interscope, was brought up because the state trooper bill davidson was killed. his lyrics were being pumped in the car by the shooter. i think it's ridiculous that we have to have that enter into the conversation as a possibility. look at folks being coupled because of the music they're listening to. >> it's not at all a possibility. the thing is is that there's a discussion that's lasted in popular music since popular music has been popular. that's whether or not lyrics influence or affect behavior. song lyrics are symptoms. hip-hop gangster rap, violence,

hip-hop, misogynistic hip-hop is not only a problem of a symptom of a root pathology but it's a symptom of an industry that focuses on selling sex and violence. kids grow up in new york city listening to boom bat rap, wootang. there's kids that grew up with hearing music about sex and violence and they think that's how you have to be to be a rapper. you can't say that means that these absurd lyrics can be used as a character study. >> in this case the appeals court made the right decision, but if you want to have a broader conversation you have to look at other cases where there are rap lyrics involved in a senseless killing. there was one case where there was an elderly blackman who was killed and the white man wrote these lyrics and there was no motive. there was no inaccident. there was no identity. there was nothing but these lyrics that were written close in time to the event to point to the motive and the intent.

in this case, in this case they were trying to show -- >> but, again, not this case only we're talking about the standard. the standard of the position of hip-hop and whether what we're seeing from bill o'reilly and the legal architecture around it is different a then we treat other songs. we have the example of johnny cash saying he shot a man in reno but it's not generally in evidence. >> i want to say on this show and in front of talib, as we talk about some of the negative things of hip-hop, hip-hop raised me. your work and your albums that you've put out and the poetry you have contributed to society raised me and i want to thank you for that. i think it's important that we thank the artists that also put out incredibly positive messages that also helped raise this message and generation. >> because we're out of time, that's an amazing place to pause. i know she likes talking to each of you. we can continue on twitter.

i want to mention your website. kweliclub.com. >> direct the fan, no middleman. >> direct to fan. >> independent. >> up next, our foot soldier of the week is responsible for these photos. be sure to stay with us. pure adorable cuteness is up next. [ byron ] what do you guysk of the smell? fresh. i forgot we were in a taxi. this is a febreze vent clip. it's 30 days old. wow! no way. [ male announcer ] febreze keeps your car fresh for up to 30 days without fading. it's 30 days old. wow! no way. my dad has aor afib.brillation, he has the most common kind... ...it's not caused by a heart valve problem. dad, it says your afib puts you at 5 times greater risk of a stroke. that's why i take my warfarin every day. but it looks like maybe we should ask your doctor about pradaxa. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate)... ...was proven superior to warfarin at reducing the risk of stroke. and unlike warfarin, with no regular blood tests or dietary restrictions. hey thanks for calling my doctor. sure. pradaxa is not for people with artificial heart valves.

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spurred the u.s. government to invade iraq. newly obtained documents provide for the first time an answer to the question. of why we did it. our foot soldier this morning has an unusual and deeply personal connection to the elections of 2008 and 2012. just days before president obama won the 2008 election, unique jones gibson gave birth to her son chase. four years later, months before the president's 2012 re-election, she welcomed her son amar'e. and for unique, the re-election of president obama coming so close to the births of her two sons allowed for something of a reimagining of the possibilities that lay ahead for her own children. and, of course, many others. she sought to capture the possibilities her sons could pursue as a result of the president's groundbreaking election and the achievements of

other trail blazers, both past and present. and thus, because of them we can campaign. this was born using children to share the stories of iconic black history leaders through a photo book. calendar. and, of course, nowadays, a social media campaign. now it showcases everyone from the leaders of the civil rights movement, like martin luther king jr., to modern-day actors like kerry washington to artists like film director, spike lee. influential musicians, both past, billie holiday and mhp's favorite, beyonce. or how about inventor of the super soaker water gun, lonnie g. johnson. so what started out as a 28 photo project in 2013 during black history month has now turned into a campaign to keep black history alive, 36 5 days a year through the inspiration she provides to children through her artist re. unique jones gibson is our foot soldier of the week. tell us, why did you do this,

why children? >> children need to be able to see themselves as bigger than they are. and i think there are a number of things coming at children that would seek to lower their self esteem or wouldn't allow them to dream big. and so i wanted to create imagery that will counter that and refute stereotypes. >> and then you're working with them. we're going to put some of these photos up. how do you get them into some of these poses that look really cute and fun, but they look kind of natural. >> they are natural. so we showed the kids the pictures, who they're portraying and some come in already knowing who they're going to channel for the day. and they do. kids listen and they nail it. >> your son, chase, as muhammad ali. let's take one look at that on the screen here. how do you get that fist up in the air? >> it was -- he's a very confident kid, very energetic. and when i showed him muhammad ali's picture and told him he would be a boxer, he did it. so he's naturally confident, and likes muhammad ali. >> and rosa parks comes up. how do you do that and take kids who are really young and give

them a sense of what this is. obviously they're not going to understand every aspect. >> i talked to them on their terms. imagine if you couldn't sit beside your friend on the bus. and i showed little bella the picture of rosa parks and placed the plate in front of her and she nailed it. >> looking at that, it's inspiring and goes to the element of it, the core of what it is. and yet it's not, of course, we want to be clear -- we're putting some up. it's not just celebrities, and not just the most famous people that might be recognizable from civil rights. you really have a whole range. tell me about that. >> you need to be able to see the breadth, so you need to see there are engineers, scientist, inventors, individuals you've heard about throughout black history month and beyond. but so many other people that you need to know about. and so this book covers everyone from the first african-american to ever vote to your barack obama. so it's definitely important to show that. >> and i've got to be real. this is not the only reason you're here. but it's not only your barack

obamas, it's also your mhps, we have one of those. let's look at that. melissa harris perry, reimagined as a child. tell bus that. >> it's important. melissa is such a strong voice, not just for african-american women, but for women in children. felt it was very important to capture her as someone for young people to be able to look to today, to be able to turn on the television and be inspired and imagine themselves as a future melissa harris perry. so very important for me to put a little kid in her shoes. >> you use that word imagine. we know kids have a lot of imagination. and yet from a very young age, and this is my last question, from a young age, their imagination is constricted by the world they see around them. what does this do in your mind, hopefully, to how kids think? >> it helps them see these great individuals that we talk about all of the time, as little people. you don't imagine rosa parks as a 4-year-old. you don't imagine the challenges or the things she may have faced. and so it helps you to actually see that they were once in your shoes and what you aspire to be. so if we can just help kids to

see you're going to go through things, there are going to be people who tell you you're not smart or you're not big, like you think you are. but if you can look to these individuals and see they were able to overcome so many challenges to achieve greatness, then you'll know that you too can do it as a result. >> because of them, we can. it's a big book. it's a cool book. and we wanted to have you on as a foot soldier so people will check it out. >> thank you so much. >> of course. unique jones gibson, thank you very much for being our foot soldier of the week. and reminder to our viewers, the book is on sale now. that is our show for today. thank you at home for watching. we had fun. we hope you did. el i will see you tomorrow morning, if you can handle it. 10:00 a.m. eastern. and now it's time for a preview of "weekends with alex witt." hi, alex. >> doing a little o.t. from "the cycle." it's all good. we have a busy hour ahead. we're monitoring breaking news out of ukraine. vladimir putin tries to flex his military muscle after president obama warns not to intervene. a new month brings another round of extreme weather, heavy snow making its way east.

and an incredible scene after an avalanche slams into a residential neighborhood. plus, the proposed nfl rule change that is causing quite the buzz. we're going to talk to the head of a group lobbying the nfl to clean up its language. don't go anywhere. i'll be right back. h in whiteni. from crest 3d white, new brilliance toothpaste and boost. after brushing, our exclusive boost polishes your smile and whitens with 3x the stain lifting ingredient for a smile that dazzles. new crest 3d white brilliance.

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